Vote for the Word with a Future 2023

More than 300 journalists summoned by LA VERDAD have participated in preparing a list of 20 voices that deserve to endure. Now we invite readers to vote, until October 8, to choose the Word with a Future 2023, which will inspire fifteen short stories, written by prestigious informants and columnists, and a podcast.

Water

A simple word, easy to use, understand and mean that, however, contains the complexity of humanity in its four letters. Water will increasingly determine the future of populations, its existence will decide the places we will live and even migratory movements. This year the drought has already forced restrictions to be imposed in large areas of Spain. Investments and government decisions will also be conditioned by the conservation of this element, without forgetting that the possibilities of inhabiting other planets depend on the existence or not of water. But all that depth does not prevent it from being an everyday element, which surrounds us and brings us closer to others, precisely like words.

Hullabaloo

Its meaning points to a “confused shouting of several people speaking at the same time” – what we need the least – but this beautiful word of Arabic origin (al-arabyya) also gives its name to a wild plant and evokes happy and festive voices. which we must never give up.

Gap

In 2022, the RAE included a new meaning of this word: “Difference or distance between situations, things or groups of people, especially due to the lack of union or cohesion.” As children we made them in our heads, but today the gaps fuel the debate on the networks and define the society of our time.

Get rid of

A term worth noting both for its sonority and plasticity and for the versatility of its meaning, both pejorative and friendly, of “a rowdy person with poor judgment.” It is a word that is rarely used today and that can serve to vindicate the richness of the Spanish vocabulary, as well as the need for it not to be lost.

Connectivity

It is a fashionable word, converted into the Eden of the digital society, which also refers to the direct relationship between devices without the need for specific adapters. We have chosen it because beyond the increasingly universal demand for devices that unify technological supports, it entails the willingness to offer oneself and communicate with others, it speaks of a disposition for openness and emotional connection. It leads us to think about relationships with the environment in the face of isolation and loneliness.

‘Chetar’

It is an Anglicism widely used by young people in their relationship, mainly, with video games. From the consoles it has jumped to the streets, and is related to all those who cheat, a derivation of the English ‘to cheat’, which means to deceive. ‘Chetar’ applies to players who resort to cheating to win the game, the modern version of the Spanish picaresque of Quevedo’s ‘Lazarillo de Tormes’ or ‘El Buscón’. The words change, but the substance is the same. The RAE includes ‘cheto’ and ‘cheta’ as a distinguished character or thing or something snobbish in colloquial slang. ‘Chetado’ and ‘chetada’ take on another dimension, as synonyms for cheater or rogue.

Dialogue

It is one of the most repeated words in an uncertain time for our social coexistence. An absolute necessity in times of ideological polarization like the one we are going through. It is worth remembering that dialogue means “talk between two or more people, who alternately express their ideas or affections” and in another of its meanings, “discussion or treatment in search of compromise.”

Ageism

“Discrimination based on age, especially of older or elderly people.” Term incorporated by the RAE in its 2022 Dictionary update. Discrimination, in an increasingly aging society, can occur due to different circumstances and in different areas, even in language. In some cases it is done intentionally, such as when it comes to taking advantage of the vulnerability of some older people to scam them; and in others, involuntarily, such as when their limitations, whether physical or knowledge, are not taken into account. We all, sooner or later, can suffer from ageism. One more reason to vindicate the use of the term.

Flow

In times when it seems that everything is stuck, flow is the verb that we must let out. Flow, referring to a liquid or a gas, or many other elements if it is in a figurative sense, means “to run.” But if we refer to an idea or a word, it means “springing easily from the mind or mouth.” Let it flow into the future.

Bollard

It is a word that deserves our defense both because it is not as well known as because of its metaphorical potential. It belongs to a very particular ecosystem, the marine one – the coast, the border – and it is, furthermore, a beautiful term. That post or element for mooring boats lends itself to expressing ideas that transcend its literality.

Hopefully

In these five letters we pin our most intimate hopes and, at the same time, we recognize the lack of certainty that characterizes life: how human it is to long for the improbable. Furthermore, it is full of history (it comes from ‘insha’Allah’, the Arabic ‘God willing’), with one foot in the past and another in the future that we desire.

Paparrucha

The RAE recognizes it as “false and misguided news of an event, spread among the masses.” This word in its etymology comes from the adjective and noun ‘páparo’ and the feminine suffix ‘ucha’, which indicates derogatory value. It is a perfect synonym to counteract the anglicism ‘fake news’, to refer to fake news, which sometimes does so much harm and against which we journalists fight non-stop. Furthermore, we think it is a nice way to put this sonorous and forceful word back into circulation.

‘Beak’

It is not until its seventeenth meaning that the Dictionary of the Spanish Language (DLE) recognizes ‘pico’ as a “superficial kiss on the lips.” It is one of the words that is most quickly identified with one of the great controversies of the year, which has opened an entire social debate. Its most common meaning is “pointed part that protrudes from the surface or at the edge or limit of something.”

‘Random’

It is an Anglicism naturally incorporated into the colloquial way of speaking, especially among young people. It is not recognized by the Royal Spanish Academy, but it is one of the terms that has become most popular in recent times. Its usefulness to refer to something casual or strange, which was not planned or foreseen, makes it a good candidate to be the word with the most future this year. ‘Random’ also serves to describe someone who is unpredictable or who does not act according to expected logic.

Shelter

Because the world is in need of them. Faced with the bombs of wars, in the host countries, immigrants… For the victims of the catastrophes that devastate the world. Or climate shelters in the face of global warming. And, always, the sentimental refuge: the people who make our lives meaningful.

Rigor

In times of social networks and the spread of fake news, rigor distinguishes journalism. The Royal Academy of the Spanish Language defines this word as “excessive and scrupulous severity” and “property and precision.” This is how the job of telling reality is defined.

‘Sisyphemia’

The term was coined in 2022, but to understand its etymology we must go back to the Greek myth of Sisyphus, condemned by the gods to climb a rock high over and over again. Now it is used to describe the disorder or state that generates mental overload caused by overwork. It is suffered by people who are tireless in the performance of their profession or those who take on unattainable challenges due to self-imposition or because they are imposed on them. An ailment of our time that will get worse?

ringing

Mechanism that makes the hours ring in a clock, gears that allow time to be trapped, putting a temporary stop to its escape. It is a cornered word, that is not used, almost unknown, that we think deserves to be rescued and whose resonance is evocative of the passing of the hours. This idea of ​​time and the technical and human gears that translate facts into information takes us back to the history and day-to-day life of our newspapers, witnesses of the past and the present in the paper archives and the most immediate event in the digital media.

Smile

Healthy physical exercise that requires the movement of 17 muscles around the mouth and that represents a spontaneous display of complicity, satisfaction or joy. Isn’t it a word that deserves to endure? Essential.

trompe l’oeil

There is a particularly refined form of ‘fake news’, a lukewarm zone in which reality seems one thing but is actually another. Today’s society is a trompe l’oeil society. One of the missions of journalism may be to reveal that, behind so many beautiful and desirable images, there is often only bricks and dirt. This happens on social networks (some social networks are a catalog of trompe l’oeil), in politics, in bad press… Trompe l’oeil. Be careful not to see what is not.